Thomsonian practice of midwifery : and treatment of complaints peculiar to women and children / By J.W. Comfort, M.D.

  • Comfort, J. W. (John W.)
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thomsonian practice of midwifery : and treatment of complaints peculiar to women and children / By J.W. Comfort, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Numbness and cramp in the legs will be relieved but not al- ways prevented, by the course of treatment recommended for dropsical swellings. Having the limbs rubbed with a warm hand or with flannel, anointing them with stimulating liniment, and wearing woolen stockings at night will be useful. Sead-ach, Vertigo, <£*c.<—The symptoms of distress in the head are occasioned by an unequal distribution of blood throughout the system, either from pressure of the uterus upon the vessels that convey the blood to and from the lower ex- tremities, or from a disordered condition of the stomach and bowels. When there is too much blood in the head there is a deficiency of it in the lower extremities. Dr. Samuel Thomson has very justly remarked that the system never makes too much blood, and when it collects in an undue quantity in any part of the system, means should be used for equalizing its circulation. Treatment.—When the symptoms of distress in the head are severe, and not relieved by the use of injections and warm applications to the feet, &c. a course of medicine should be given as the surest means of equalizing the circulation. The derangements in the circulation of the blood and nervous fluid, occasioning pain in the head, vertigo, &c. are most apt to prevail in cases where the circulation in the lower extremities is obstructed; and the same course of treatment that will re- store the circulation in the legs and feet will relieve distress in the head. The use of injections and regulating the diet so as to prevent obstinate costiveness, will be sufficient in some cases to keep the circulation equalized. In other cases a more tho- rough course of treatment will be demanded. Disease of the Liver.—The function of the liver in some cases becomes disordered during pregnancy, attended with costive- ness, a dry skin, high coloured urine, and yellowish or rusty